Walmart's announcement today that it plans to raise prices is expected to open the floodgates for wider retail price hikes.
Why it matters: The world's largest retailer — whose brand is inextricably linked to low prices and affordability — said despite the China trade deal earlier this week it is too late to avoid higher costs for consumers.
Texas and Florida are home to five of the 15 major U.S. cities with the most overall population growth between 2023 and 2024, per new census estimates.
The GOP tax bill includes Republican packaging of what is more often a Democrat's proposal – money for every baby in the country.
Why it matters: The $4 trillion tax legislation would seed $1,000 for every American baby born over the next few years, the type of no-strings-attached cash infusion that Republicans often oppose.
The big picture: With Washington, D.C., looking more favorably on the digital asset industry, "you're going to find a lot more entities and companies looking at the overall positive regulatory outlook in the U.S., looking to enter the U.S.," Raj Dhamodharan, the company's executive vice president for digital assets, tells Axios.
We haven't focused on coin prices too much in these pages lately, but it would be crazy to ignore the fact that Ethereum's coin, ether (ETH), is up like 40% in recent days.
The big picture: The second-largest blockchain has been adapting to what its most avid users want and is working to drive value back to the core change.
Between the lines: I like to say that you never know what changes prices in this world, but it's pretty clear that the recent Pectra upgrade on Ethereum did it, and the increased value has held now for a week (which in crypto time is months).
Lots of people lost money on Official Trump, the meme coin launched by the president, even over the recent period where it almost doubled in value.
The latest: Since Fight Fight Fight Inc., announced a contest for the largest holders of the Trump token to have dinner with President Trump, almost $300 million has flowed into the token, according to Nansen, an on-chain wallet tracking platform.
Over the same period, over $21 million worth of losses were realized, far outweighing gains made by traders who took advantage of the uptick in the token's price since the announcement.
Not-so-fun fact: There are 21 million bitcoins (some still unmined), and the Trump dinner is on Bitcoin Pizza Day.
Databricks is one of the world's most valuable unicorns, fetching a $62 billion mark late last year. It's also become a top unicorn hunter, acquiring three startups for at least $1 billion.
Driving the news: The latest prize is database provisioning startup Neon, whose CEO Nikita Shamgunov has said that 80% of the databases created on Neon are created by AI agents instead of humans.
President Trump on Thursday revealed his wishes for bleeding-edge warplanes he dubbed F-22 Super and F-55.
Why it matters: Trump's comments during a stop in Qatar were the first time either potential aircraft has been publicly mentioned. Such major, multibillion-dollar endeavors are not pulled from thin air, suggesting some legwork may already be underway.
It's a boost for Lockheed Martin, which makes both the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II, which the president suggested would be upgraded.
With major indicators from April — the month of peak tariff uncertainty — now in, none show the kinds of recessionary or inflationary conditions implied by business and consumer surveys.
Why it matters: Warnings and anecdotes are taking on greater importance as signs of how tariffs are working their way through the economy.
Shares in UnitedHealth Group plunged on Thursday, their eighth straight day of declines, after a Wall Street Journal report on a purported criminal probe into alleged Medicare fraud.
Why it matters: The stock, a major Dow component, has now lost more than half its value since last December, when a key executive was shot and killed in broad daylight in New York City.
Walmart expects to raise some prices because of the impact of President Trump's tariffs, officials said Thursday.
Why it matters: The world's largest retailer, which had pledged to hold the line on pricing, said it was now too late to avoid higher costs for consumers, even with the China trade deal earlier this week.
The Federal Reserve is gearing up to re-evaluate how it sets and communicates monetary policy in light of economic shifts of the last five years, chair Jerome Powell said Thursday.
The big picture: The Fed is reviewing its monetary policy framework — the goals and methods it uses to set interest rate policy and communicate it to the public — for the first time since 2020.
Archer Aviation has been selected as the "official air taxi provider" for the Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, the company said Thursday.
Why it matters: The nominally "no-car" Olympics are the biggest possible showcase for the future of urban air mobility.
Americans with spare cash love nothing more than shopping, and that includes snapping up stocks when they go on sale.
Why it matters: Retail investors rushed to buy the dip when the stock market plunged following the announcement of President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2.
The battle over the "big beautiful tax bill" is just getting started, but there are early signs of who stands to benefit and who loses out, with some a bit more surprising than others.
Why it matters: What lawmakers decide in coming weeks will directly affect people's lives.
President Trump on Thursday said he told Apple not to expand iPhone production in India, while also indicating the possibility of a sweeping new trade deal with the country.
Why it matters: Apple was reportedly planning to massively expand phone manufacturing for the U.S. market in India, as a workaround for the ongoing trade war with China.
Here's what's new on Hulu, Paramount+, Netflix, Prime Video, Max and Apple TV+.
What we're watching: New seasons of "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" and "The Chi," plus a documentary about one of the U.K.'s most prolific serial killer couples.
Count Boeing as a big winner of the Trump administration's trade policy —despite a sometimes frosty relationship with the president.
Why it matters: It's a decisive turn for a company slammed by business and regulatory disasters caused by quality troubles, legal problems, labor issues and — most recently — trade walls.
